AJ's 1st Step
by warmfluffypastries
Summary: Sweet little moment following 'Some Interesting News'.


~Gage's POV~  
  
"Come on A.J. you can do it," Syd encouraged our 13th month old son, who was gripping tightly to the side of the coffee table standing on wobbly legs.  
  
"A.J. just a little further," Ben, three years old, was crouched next to his mother also coaxing his younger brother to take his first steps.  
  
I watched the scene of my family as we all watched in anticipation as A.J. lifted one stubby little foot from the carpet of our living room floor, only for him to land flat on his little bottom.  
  
"He's never going to walk at this rate," Ben snapped unlike the three year old that he was.  
  
"You have to be supportive of him Ben," I tried to explain, "he needs as much help and support as we can give him."  
  
"That's right, besides you weren't that quick with learning to walk either, but we encouraged you as much as possible," Syd smiled picking up the once again bubbly A.J. who had found something more fun on the floor to play with, that he probably shouldn't be playing with.  
  
"Okay, I guess we can try again later," Ben sighed walking down the hall towards the stairs and his room.  
  
"Hey little man, you're almost there just a couple more steps," I smiled taking A.J. from Syd.  
  
"Da," he cooed happily recognizing me.  
  
"Okay you two, I've got to get dinner started so why don't you get to your nap, little guy," Syd smiled giving me a little slap on the butt as she headed for the kitchen.  
  
"I guess we better head for the bed then huh?" I laughed walking towards the stairs A.J.'s head resting against my shoulder as I walked softly humming an old lullaby as we made our way to the nursery.  
  
"Daddy, can we go to the park sometime this week?" Ben asked when I exited the nursery, softly closing the door behind me hoping not to wake A.J.  
  
"We'll see Buddy, we might be able to but it might just have to wait till Mom and I can both get some time off," I smiled picking him up and heading back downstairs.  
  
"Okay, and do you think we could play baseball too?" he asked as we entered the living room, "Mommy, said you used to be pretty good."  
  
"Used to be, huh? Well tell you what you and I've got a date and we'll just see how good I used to be." I laughed dropping him on the couch and falling next to him, and grabbing the remote.  
  
Ben crawled into my lap, and took the remote flipping channels landing on something that he obviously wanted to watch. Leaning back and propping my feet on the coffee table I was content to close my eyes and sleep.  
  
~Sydney's POV~  
  
"Okay guys, dinner's ready," I walked into the living room, finding Gage asleep his head rolled onto the back of the couch his mouth wide open, Ben, in his lap, the mirror image of his father, and both slept soundly.  
  
"Ben, sweetie," I whispered gently shaking him, his eyes barely cracking, "it's time for dinner why don't you go wash up."  
  
"K, Mommy," he mumbled stumbling towards the stairs.  
  
My next mission was going to be a little more enjoyable, I slowly straddled Gage's lap careful not to touch him at all. Leaning over him I placed my hands on the back of the couch to support myself and I let my tongue play across his lower lip, then slowly into his mouth to slide across his own before moving to his upper lip.  
  
"You know, if we keep this up we're going to have another one before A.J. is 2," Gage smiled against my own lips as he responded to my ministrations.  
  
"I was just trying to tell you that dinner's ready," I replied innocently moving before he could reply.  
  
"You'll pay for that one," I heard him shout as I climbed the stairs towards A.J.'s room.  
  
Opening the door I was faced with my 13th month old standing in his crib his hand firmly grasped around the railing as he concentrated on the door, almost as if he knew I was coming, "Hey little man, you ready for some food?"  
  
"Ma," he answered my question with one of the few words in his vocabulary.  
  
After a diaper change and a quick hand wash later, we joined Gage and Ben at the table where they were discussing something-undoubtedly one of Gage's view points on women. Placing A.J. in his high chair, I collected some of the softer foods from the table giving him a small meal of his own to enjoy.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
"We'll try one more time before bed okay?" Gage asked leaning back against the brick fireplace.  
  
We were once again settled in the living room, encouraging A.J. to take his first step. Ben of course the ever-helpful big brother had been showing him how to walk and A.J. continually stared as if Ben had grown a second head.  
  
"Hey, A.J. come to Mommy," I tried to coax him, which only resulted in him plopping down and rolling over only to crawl to me.  
  
"Try this," Gage took A.J. placed him in the middle of the floor then held out a finger on each hand and A.J. readily grabbed both, and Gage gently lifted him to his feet, "now let's go to Mommy."  
  
Slowly one foot went up and then descended only a couple of inches in front of the other one, and the process was slowly repeated as A.J. made his way across the room. Finally coming to a stopping point in front of me, Gage smiled lightly kissing the small mass of hair on his head and then let go and let A.J. stand on his own which only lasted a second of so.  
  
"That was so good, my brave little man, look how far you came," I gushed as Ben came to give his brother a congratulatory kiss before tugging on his Dad's hand as they headed upstairs to get ready for bed.  
  
After changing and feeding A.J. his evening bottle, I stopped by Ben's room to wish him sweet dreams. "I love you," I whispered placing a soft kiss on his forehead brushing the soft blonde hair out of his eyes, thinking how much it was like his father's.  
  
"I'm glad we get to have days like this," I sighed sinking into the bed watching Gage as he came out of the bathroom in only a towel.  
  
"Really? And why is that Mrs. Gage?" he smiled falling next to me, settling on one elbow, and turning to continue our conversation.  
  
"Just for that; I like being Mrs. Gage and a Mom, and when I don't have to think about work or it doesn't interfere with our family time, I almost wish I didn't have to work, what if A.J. walks for the first time at Daycare, like he did with crawling? I don't want that to happen again."  
  
"It won't you saw how close he was today and if you want to know a secret I was barely helping him," Gage smiled leaning to give me a peck.  
  
"You know you can be very distracting?" I asked also noticing that the way he lay showed off his muscular thigh that the towel had slipped from.  
  
"Oh really? Well how 'bout I get really distracting and we lock the door so we can't be interrupted?" his eyebrows wiggled as he jumped up from the bed, running to lock the door like no more than an anxious teenager.  
  
As he walked back, the towel that had been barely hanging on his hips slid to the floor leaving him nude as he crawled on top of me, starting his devours of my body, mind, and soul.  
  
~Gage's POV~  
  
Being able to have woken up before Syd, I had gathered my sons and was making breakfast as they watched TV. I was just turning to place the last dish on the table when I heard Syd yelling my name.  
  
"What's wrong?" I asked walking into the living room.  
  
"Nothing, just watch him go," Syd whispered pointing to where A.J. was focusing on a ball on the opposite side of the room from him as his wobbly legs, slowly carried him in that direction.  
  
"C'mon A.J. just a couple more," Ben was telling him following closely behind making sure his brother didn't fall, and at just about that point A.J. bottom dropped landing and quickly moving to a position where he could crawl to get to the ball.  
  
"He did it, he walked!!" I exclaimed rushing to grab Ben, as Syd already had A.J. bouncing him on her hip as she walked toward the kitchen.  
  
"Yes you did, you walked all by yourself with no help from anyone, uh huh you did," Syd babbled on and on to A.J. causing fits of laughter in him as she buckled him in his chair.  
  
"You know I was thinking another might not be such a bad idea," I kidded keeping quiet hoping Ben hadn't heard.  
  
"Yeah well you've got my vote especially after a moment like that," Syd smiled at the shocked expression on my face, "don't look so shocked I want a big family . . ." 


End file.
